This week marks ten years since Harambe the gorilla was shot dead at the Cincinnati Zoo. For those readers who didn’t follow the tragedy the first time around: the 17-year-old silverback was killed by a zoo worker after a three-year-old boy fell into his enclosure. Over the course of around ten minutes, Harambe became agitated by the screams of onlookers, and – after initially showing curiosity – began dragging the boy around his concrete enclosure. 

Experts later claimed that lethal force was necessary to protect the child, while many people questioned how a child could fall 15 feet into a gorilla enclosure in the first place. The late primatologist Dr Jane Goodall summed it up as “awful” for everyone involved, “the child, the parents, Harambe, the zoo, the keepers and the public”.

Anyway, the basic facts of the tragedy are almost beside the point. They were quickly eclipsed by an outpouring of raw emotion across the internet and IRL, including memes, artistic tributes, and candlelight vigils. For a brief, beautiful moment the world seemed united in grieving the gorilla’s passing and celebrating his life. Amid a time of political upheavals, including the Brexit vote and the looming election of Donald Trump, had we finally found the thing that would bring us all back together? The short answer: no.

In fact, Harambe’s legacy quickly warped into something very different. Soon, white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, and apocalyptic doomsayers were all laying claim to the gorilla’s mythology. Below, we explore some of the weirdest facets of his afterlife.

BOWIE, PRINCE... HARAMBE 

Among other things, 2016 was the year of the high-profile celebrity death. David Bowie. Prince. Muhammad Ali. Carrie Fisher. George Michael. Gene Wilder. This only seemed to cement Harambe’s celebrity status, with the gorilla appearing in Meme Heaven edits alongside fellow lost legends.

HARAMBE HERALDS THE APOCALYPSE

The last ten years have been rough. A frightening resurgence of fascist politics, military conflict, record-breaking natural disasters, a cost of living crisis, and a general spiritual malaise has plagued the decade since we lost Harambe. Does that mean that he’s literally responsible for our universe spiralling toward the End Times? We’re not saying that. But some people disagree, claiming that Harambe was the “anchor being” of our timeline, and his death is therefore the reason for everything going to shit.

HARAMBE BECOMES A NATIONALIST ICON...

If Harambe’s death didn’t announce the imminent collapse of reality, it did help pave the way for a significant shift in the Overton Window. Shortly after his death propelled him to viral fame, the alt-right tapped into the gorilla’s memetic powers to spread messages of hate, white nationalism, and support for Trump’s first presidential campaign. “I feel like it was driven to the ground so quickly,” Brandon Wardell, a comedian who popularised the ‘dicks out for Harambe’ meme told the BBC at the time. “I didn’t love that there were Nazis that were all of a sudden into a meme that I created.”

... AND DONALD TRUMP’S SPIRIT ANIMAL

It will come as no surprise that Trump himself – whose campaign mined other memes, most notably Pepe the Frog – adopted the late Harambe as an unwitting ally. “It was almost like a mother holding a baby… so beautiful and calm,” he told reporters of the incident in 2016, although he also admitted: “There were moments where [it] looked pretty dangerous.” 

At the time, this statement might have seemed pretty strange. But ten years later, it somehow feels natural that official White House social media accounts are posting about Harambe’s death anniversary. Calling him a “true patriot” in a tribute, the Trump administration writes: “He became a symbol of loyalty, strength, chaos, unity, and the strange beauty of the internet bringing millions of people together for one cause: never forgetting Harambe. Everyone remembers where they were when they heard the news... Forever in our hearts.”

... AND ELON MUSK’S MUSE

Elon Musk wants – no, needs – people to know that he’s a very funny guy. That’s why he dropped an autotuned track called “RIP Harambe”. Three years after the meme had dropped off. Oh, and by the way he was still posting it under people’s tweets five years later. At least wait for a major anniversary to make your blatant attempts to mine Harambe’s legacy for attention.